Reduce your utility bills

At Howarth Armsby we can provide businesses in the London area with help and advice on finance and on a wide range of business issues. Here is a checklist for reducing your utility bills…

Almost every business pays more than it needs to in utility bills. Conducting a utility audit might seem like a time consuming distraction but you could be pleasantly surprised by how much it adds to your bottom line.

Use the checklist below to identify potential savings for your business:

Have a member of staff responsible for checking all utility bills – Make sure they know how the bills are calculated, what tariffs are available, etc.

Carry out your own readings of all energy and water meters each month – Use the information to plot patterns of use

Check that all utility bills are accurate and that any estimates are reasonable – Even the largest utility companies make mistakes

Annually review the tariffs you use – Not only do your usage patterns change, your suppliers also change the deals they offer

Monitor overnight energy usage – Check if it is being used by essential equipment and if so that you have the best overnight tariff

Make the best use of cheap rate electricity – If you can arrange usage by water heaters etc so that 15% of total electricity usage occurs during off–peak hours, you might benefit from switching to a day/night tariff

If you are on a Maximum Demand tariff, review your supply capacity – If your declared supply capacity is more than 15% higher than your highest Maximum Demand, contact your supplier to have it lowered